Bayárcal

Bayárcal, Alpujarra Region

Bayárcal is a town that belongs to the region of La Alpujarra, located to the west of the province, in the amazing gully of La Ragua, that borders on Granada and it is a natural pass towards El Marquesado de Zenete through mountain range. It belongs to the Natural Park of Sierra Nevada, one of the natural paradises due to its landscape, botanic, faunal and anthropological riches.

The town, like all in La Alpujarra, has the unmistakable appearance of its houses built in terrace, terraced in the hill, with its Moorish chimneys and flat floors. In this group we have to emphasize the Mudejar tower of its Parish Church.

This was a modest Muslim village that in the XVI century it was uninhabited, until it disappeared, its small rábita, Haratalburrica, nowadays a portion of the fertile lowland from Bayárcal called Talburrica. It is some years, together with some friends and as a result of a clearing in order to widen the road of entrance to the town, we recovered the half of a big glazed earthenware jar with epigraphic engraving (nowadays kept in the town hall), an obvious sign of the important Muslim past, since we know that there are many.

For example, the ossuary of the cemetery in the town is an interesting Nasrid arch, like the Muslim arcades that we can observe in a house of the town. Bayárcal is a town proud of its history, with a thousand-year-old castle located in Yniza, nature and historic reserve that gives the title to the marquis with the same name. In it we can find one of the most important fortresses that controlled all the activity of the port in Ragua during all the Muslim Middle Ages. In this place we also can observe the ruins of the XVI century and an important hilly place.

Monuments

Parish church of San Francisco Javier
Castle

Gastronomy

We have to emphasize the Fritada alpujarreña. Choto al ajo cabañil. Cocina mareá. Olla de nabos. Encebollado con hígado de cerdo. Tabirnas colorás (a potato stew with red peppers, onion and garlic).

Sweets: Roscos de Semana Santa. Soplillos with egg and almond. Buns with honey. Rosquillos de vino. Pebetes de calabaza (crushed pumpkin balls). Wines from the land.

How to get there

You have to exit Almería and take the road from Granada. Then cross Huércal de Almería and Benahadux. Continue through: A-348. Alleyway of Alhama de Almería, pass near Illar, alleyway of Canjáyar. Then you have to take: A-348A, alleyway of Fondón. Cross Láujar de Andarax and continue in: ALP-612 until you get Bayárcal.

Distances

To Almería 81 km
To Alhama de Almería 60 km
To Láujar de Andarax 17 km
To Paterna del Río 6,5 km